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Changing Chemical Properties of a Substrate

The molded samples that were left to dry for a week were ready to be heated to crosslink. The samples were taken from the mold and placed onto separate aluminum foil sheets in an oven at 80°C for 24 hours.

Observations: When setting up the molds to be placed in the oven it was observed that the more cellulose the mold had the more it stuck onto the mold. Although every mold increased in quantity of modified cellulose and citric acid, each mold was about the same thickness.

Four new molds were made but with different quantities of citric acid. Each mold had the same amount of cellulose: 5g, 10g, 15g and 20g. The citric acid quantities were cut by half (2.5g, 5g, 7.5g and 10g).

To make new molds a new solution of modified cellulose and citric acid needed to be made. The cellulose quantity was increased to 12.5g which was then mixed into a container with 235g of H2O. The container was placed into the Sonicator at 50°C for 60 minutes. Meanwhile, the citric acid was made again with same measurements from the first time which were 5g of citric acid and 95g of H2O.